Chapter 1 A Strange Combination

A cadre, a captain, and a small gang member were drinking heavily at the tavern in a bizarre combination.

While Soren and the other two were drinking, Sam and several members of the Cross Society rushed into the tavern in a panic, carrying heavy firearms.

They scanned the tavern, their eyes immediately catching Kai in the booth.

Sam saw no one else. He strode over, his face full of urgency. “Captain, bad news! One of the guys we took out earlier was apparently the little brother of a ‘Steam Party’ cadre. I got word that ‘Redhead’ Kuntu is on his way with a bunch of guys, looking for trouble! Captain, we need to call up the brothers…”

He rattled off a long string of words, almost out of breath.

Gang fights were commonplace, especially in territories where two gangs had contact.

Normally, this would have been urgent.

With the enemy coming in force, the Cross Society would need to rally their brothers. Even if it didn’t turn into a full-blown firefight, they at least wouldn’t be outnumbered.

But after Sam finished speaking, he noticed that the atmosphere at the table was strange.

Shouldn’t the captain have slammed his fist on the table and started calling people?

But… Kai seemed very calm.

He even picked up his glass, slowly took a sip, and then sneered, “Little brother? Heh… looks like the Steam Party guys are just looking for an excuse to start a war.”

Soren remained silent, glancing at the gambling addict beside him.

Anywhere else, he might have been worried about his safety.

But now…

Qiantiao had her back to the tavern entrance. Sam and the others had been too focused on finding Kai and hadn’t noticed the woman at the table looked familiar.

Now, seeing the strange atmosphere, they took a closer look and recognized the large flower tattoo on Qiantiao’s arm.

“Sister Qiantiao?”

Sam and the others were surprised and delighted.

Qiantiao picked up her glass, took a sip, and asked lazily, “What’s going on?”

“The Steam Party…”

Sam started to repeat what he’d said earlier, but seeing Qiantiao’s bored expression, he changed his tone obsequiously. “Ah, you’re here. Never mind then.”

Everyone else: “…”

Soon, the roar of motorcycles came from outside, and the Steam Brotherhood’s notorious “Motorcycle Gang” arrived on Green Street.

Soren looked at the well-modified steam Harley motorcycles outside, a bit envious. Putting aside other things, the Steam Party’s mechanical modification technology was indeed superior in the outer city.

Twenty-odd guys with modified mechanical limbs and long guns rushed into the Elephant Tavern menacingly, scaring the tavern’s patrons into scattering.

Judging by their posture, they were clearly there to seek revenge.

But then, a dramatic scene unfolded.

The farce ended in a bizarre way before it even began.

The red-haired man leading the group saw Kai at the table and raised his gun, roaring, “Kai, you…”

But before he could finish, he caught sight of the large flower tattoo on the woman at the table, and his expression changed drastically. The harsh words he was about to say were swallowed back down.

Redhead was quick-witted. Without another word, he shoved the raised gun back into its holster. With a flick of his red hair, he immediately turned and left the tavern, as if he’d wandered in by mistake.

The tavern’s clueless patrons were dumbfounded by this scene.

But the Cross Society members laughed and jeered, “Hahahaha…”

Qiantiao ignored the departing Steam Party members. As a Cross Society cadre, she wouldn’t lower herself to bother with a small squad leader from a rival gang.

Having drunk enough, she said to Kai, “Kai, kid, be careful lately. The Steam Party guys have their eyes on Green Street too. They’ll probably be making trouble…”

Kai nodded thoughtfully. “Got it, Sister Qiantiao.”

Gangs always faced fighting and killing.

They had been prepared for it from the moment they joined.

…

Although he’d encountered many unexpected events on his first day in the gang, the days that followed were peaceful.

Every night at seven, Kai would lead his squad on patrol for half an hour, then dismiss them.

Life was quite leisurely.

Even the Steam Party guys hadn’t reappeared since that incident at the Elephant Tavern.

And the gambling addict showed up at the arena every night, dragging Soren along to gamble.

But gambling really did depend on luck.

Even with Soren’s good luck, he couldn’t win every time.

Of course, he bet small, so he could accept the wins and losses.

But this Sister Qiantiao fully displayed the ups and downs of a gambler’s mentality.

When she was winning, she had all the reasons in the world, saying things like “cut your losses in time” and “know when to quit while you’re ahead…”

But when she really lost her shirt, she didn’t care about anything, doubling down after each loss…

No one could dissuade her.

This kind of gambling led to her squandering the two million she’d won on the first day in just a few days.

This was common for gamblers: living a life of luxury when they won, and ending up on the streets when they lost.

However, although this gambling addict’s gambling manners were average, her character was pretty good.

When she lost everything, she didn’t borrow a penny from Soren or Kai, only mooching food and drink.

Since Soren had to go to the arena every day to harvest soul fragments, he had to gamble with her. So the two of them became quite familiar.

Qiantiao didn’t act like a big sister boss, and the two of them were considered drinking buddies.

No wonder she had good relationships with the gang members.

A few days later, Qiantiao lost the last of her savings, and then regretfully went home. She planned to do some gang missions to earn money, and made plans to gamble again with Soren in the future.

Soren saw off this gang boss, and his own life returned to peace.

Every night, he would stay at the arena until dawn, then find a hotel to meditate, practice puppet techniques, and read alchemy books…

His days were regular and leisurely, and his experience points soared as he harvested souls and practiced his professional skills every day.

There were 8-10 corpses in the arena every day, and occasionally there were professional gladiator matches.

In these few days, he had also extracted a lot of strange abilities, such as “Lip Reading Mastery,” “Dart Throwing,” “Motorcycle Riding Skills,” and “Gwent Card Skills…”

A bunch of miscellaneous skills, all kinds.

However, he gradually discovered a problem.

As his own firearms level and fighting level increased, he extracted fewer and fewer experience points from the corpses.

Later, he figured it out. As he approached the “Advanced Firearms Mastery” level, he naturally couldn’t learn too much from a corpse with “Beginner Mastery.”

Although he could learn from their strengths, it wasn’t much.

Fortunately, there was no risk, and he could accumulate little by little. The practical combat experience harvested from a corpse was at least equivalent to half a month of his own practice.

During this time, Soren went to the black market a few more times, but he couldn’t find the ideal implant blueprints. But he heard that in a few days, the black market would hold a monthly, irregularly scheduled, high-quality auction. That was when wasteland hunters and thieves concentrated on selling their goods, and many good things would appear.

He planned to go and try his luck then.

…

One day, in a hotel room.

A gunshot rang out, shaking the lime powder on the walls.

Who knew which unlucky guy had been shot.

Although he was used to it, Soren’s arm still twitched instinctively when he heard the noise.

The rune pen in his hand, stained with blue paint, also deviated from its intended path, leaving a very glaring, failed mark on the doll’s body, like crooked lipstick.

“Failed again…”

Soren looked at the puppet in front of him, which he had already painted beyond recognition, with a kind of helpless bitterness.

Although it wasn’t easy for him to be interrupted by the outside environment when he was focused, he couldn’t stand the extremely high frequency of quarrels, fights, and gunshots.

Drunken tenants in the cheap hotel corridor often fought. In this world where everyone had a gun, fighting almost meant a gunfight, which was always frightening. Just yesterday, an incident occurred in the room above Soren’s: a call girl colluded with accomplices to shoot a courier. There was another burst of gunfire, and a bullet that pierced the floor almost injured him downstairs.

“It’s really hard to find a suitable place to live…”

Soren sighed slightly, a little fed up with this terrible noisy environment.

He wanted to find a place that was soundproof, quiet, and preferably with a shooting range.

The Weird Puppet Master was a rare profession, and related professional skills could hardly be extracted from the gladiators in the arena. He could only practice hard. The two processes of enchanting and engraving were much more difficult than expected, requiring a quiet environment and a lot of time to practice.

Since he had already been disturbed, Soren didn’t dwell on the gunshots.

He looked at the failed puppet in front of him, his eyes turning. At this moment, he bent his fingers sharply, as if grabbing something invisible. The puppet suddenly stood up in a strange way.

It was only half a meter tall, like a naked toddler, and then it walked around the room.

The sound of the wooden joints rubbing together was slightly creepy.

Soren stood in place, his fingers twitching rapidly as if playing the piano, and the puppet followed suit, making many movements. Although it still looked stiff, it could basically make some combat moves like punching, kicking, rolling, swinging a knife to stab…

After practicing for a while, Soren stopped when he felt the muscles in his fingers were stiff.

“Hoo…”

He exhaled a long breath.

He looked at the steel wire wrapped around his fingers, shook his head slightly, and muttered, “The steel wire isn’t thin enough, nor strong enough, and the controllability is too low… It’s really not easy to find a suitable thread material.”

This was already the most suitable material he could find to control puppets, but it was still somewhat unsatisfactory.

He thought of the scene in the manor ruins where Pestoya simultaneously manipulated dozens of weird puppets, easily controlling the bald Ivan with silk threads.

The same silk thread manipulation, but the effect was worlds apart.

A semi-finished weird puppet, without suitable steel wire, and clumsy manipulation skills…

This newly entered “Weird Puppet Master” had a long way to go before he could use puppets to form combat power.

But Soren had a good attitude. He felt the progress was good since he could reach this level in a few days.

There were still several hours before work, and Soren originally planned to continue practicing puppet manipulation.

But at this moment, Kai’s call suddenly came from the communicator: “All newbies, gather at the old place, we have a mutation mission.”

Soren didn’t dare delay, checked his equipment and ammunition, and walked out of the room.

…

Not long after the gathering message was sent, the Steam Party’s “Redhead” Kuntu led a group of people and quietly sneaked into the vicinity of Green Street.

A mysterious voice came from the communicator: “Captain Kuntu, it’s confirmed. Kai is taking a group of newbies, about twenty people, to the tenement building.”